Out of State Drivers and Utah DUIs

Interviewer: What if someone was out of state and received a Utah DUI? Would they still have their license suspended?

Matthew Nebeker: If they were out of state and they received a DUI in Utah, they would still have to follow the same procedures, request the hearing, and attend the hearing. If they were only here for a short period of time, in those cases, the arresting officer should not take the out of state license.

Out of State Drivers That Receive Utah DUIs Should Hire a Local, Utah Defense Attorney

They can go home with their license to their state of residence and hire myself to represent them. Most of the judges around here will allow the representation to be done by affidavit or excuse their appearance for most of the hearings.

Utah Is Part of the Interstate Compact and Will Notify Your Home State of a DUI Infraction

We still have to defend the case like they were here in state and try and keep their driving privilege secure. This is because most of the states are part of what they call the interstate compact for driver’s licenses. Sometimes we lose the hearings here in Utah. That gets reported to the interstate compact, the compacting state. That state of residence will usually suspend their license.

It’s still important, if they’re from out of state, to defend here in Utah as aggressively as they would if they had gotten it in their home state because a DUI could still impact their home state license.

In Some Cases, Drivers Can Face Penalties from Their Home State and the State Where They Received the DUI

I have an example of this recently. We have a client, traveling salesman from Tennessee area. He gets a DUI here for being under the influence of a controlled substance. He loses the license hearing so Utah suspends his driving privilege. The Utah suspension would only be for 120 days. That 120-day suspension was reported to Tennessee.

Tennessee doesn’t have this particular law like Utah does. What happened is Tennessee, under their regular DUI statute, suspended his Tennessee license for 12 months. It actually ended up being a lot harsher in his home state than it was in Utah, where he actually committed the offense.

This simply is because Tennessee didn’t have the same law as Utah. I’m trying to help him undo that. The bottom line is if a driver is out of state, you have to defend as aggressively as you would in their home state to prevent sanctions stiffer then what they would get in Utah.